Tag: busy

With the start of a new year, DirecTV, the nation’s largest television satellite company, has been very active. There was the continued opposition (along with EchoStar) to the launch of Venu Sports which soon folded.

Soon afterward, DirecTV announced plans to launch its own sports themed streaming service MySports. Days later DirecTV announced it had acquired a majority stake in Invidi Technologies, a global leader in addressable TV advertising.

In early January, Disney announced it reached an agreement with Fubo acquiring 70% of the sports streaming provider. At the time, Disney was one of three owners of Venu Sports, along with Fox and Warner Bros Discovery. Last year, the three companies had announced plans to stream their sports assets at a monthly subscription rate was $42.99. Fubo had opposed and had successfully delayed the launch until there was a court hearing. In the aftermath of the agreement however, Fubo dropped its litigation.

Attorneys for DirecTV and EchoStar, in letters to the court, cited antitrust laws and continued their opposition. With legal challenges continuing, the three co-owners of Venu Sports soon afterwards announced they would not be moving forward. In a statement the owners said, “After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service.”

Soon afterwards DirecTV announced the launch of its own streaming “skinny bundle” of sports programming with MySports. At the onset, MySports will have 40+ sports and broadcast channels including content from Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox and NBCUniversal. DirecTV is in talks to add Paramount Global.

Among the channels available at launch are; ACC Network, Big Ten Network, DIRECTV 4K Live, DIRECTV 4K Live 2, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Golf Channel, MLB Network, NBA TV, NFL Network, NHL Network, SEC Network, TBS, TNT, TruTV and USA. Additional networks, local stations and ESPN+, will be included in MySports at no extra cost in the near future.

At its launch, MySports will be available in 24 major markets. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose will have local station affiliates from Fox, ABC and NBC. (In those markets the networks own and operate the stations.)

The remaining markets are: Houston, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Austin, Detroit, Gainesville, Fla., Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa, Miami, Boston, New Haven and San Diego. These markets will have access to at least one local broadcast station owned by one of the networks.

MySports can be streamed on Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple along with the DirecTV mobile app. For subscribers that sign up before February 28, the first three months will cost $49.99 per month, before increasing to $69.99. The monthly cost is greater than the proposed cost of Venu Sports.

In the press release, DirecTV cited a poll from the American Television Alliance, that 78% of consumers want more flexibility and choice in paying for the types of content they want to watch. DirecTV also reported that nearly 80% of their customers watch less than 30 channels across their programming lineup.

MySports is the first of several genre-based options expected to be launched by DirecTV in 2025. Other genres include kids & family programs and entertainment. Also, as soon as this August, Disney is expected to launch a standalone ESPN streaming service which will include content across all ESPN linear channels. The monthly cost is expected to be in the range of $25-$30.

Days later, DirecTV announced they had acquired a majority ownership of Invidi Technologies. Since 2020 DirecTV has had partial ownership of Invidi along with EchoStar and WPP. Invidi will continue to operate as an independent company. Financial terms were not disclosed,

Invidi has been a provider of addressable advertising which enables marketers to better target viewers on linear TV, AVOD and streaming. The acquisition allows DirecTV greater access to Invidi’s data and technology assets. The result will strengthen DirecTV’s continued investment in addressable advertising as marketers continue to allocate more of their ad budget to addressable advertising.

Among the assets Invidi provides advertisers are Invidi Conexus for consolidated campaign management. Invidi Edge for linear and streaming addressable ad delivery. Invidi Pulse for optimizing programmatic and direct ad sales.

In a statement, DirecTV Chief Advertising Sales Officer Amy Leifer said, “Our longstanding support of Invidi has enabled us to connect brands with their audiences effectively. The deal underscores our commitment to continue to invest in the future of addressability and leans into Invidi’s industry-leading solutions to deliver outcomes for brands of all sizes and across all categories.”

Bruce Anderson, co-CEO of Invidi Technologies noted, “Invidi Technologies has had a longstanding relationship with DirecTV as a client and an investor and we know this will only strengthen that support. DirecTV is a strong advocate for addressable advertising, and with their increased involvement, we expect to be able to further grow our business in the U.S. At the same time, we plan to continue to work to build on our successes internationally, expanding our efforts in India, APAC, MENA, Europe and Latin America.”

This flurry of activity in streaming and addressable advertising from DirecTV comes at a time when their core business, satellite TV distribution unit is losing subscribers. While DirecTV continues to be the nation’s largest pay-TV distributor via satellite, consumers continue to drop cable TV for less expensive alternatives such as streaming. Ten years ago, DirecTV had over 20 million household subscribers, that number has since fallen to about 11 million across DirecTV, DirecTV Stream and U-Verse.

In late September DirecTV announced an agreement to acquire EchoStar’s video distribution unit, including DISH TV and Sling TV via a debt exchange transaction. In November the agreement was terminated after bondholders failed to consent to a key debt exchange.